So, I picked up my SR500EPB used from a local seller on Reverb. He explained that there were some scratches and the like on the bass, but nothing too bad. And that’s accurate, but I’m curious if there some way to fix them without sanding down to raw wood and re-finishing, which I don’t want to do because one of the reasons I got that specific SR500E was because of the finish. So here goes:
These look like pick-marks or something, best as I can tell. The prior owner must have had a really heavy pick and been down-picking with anger. Anyway, I had similar marks on my Carvin, and I used MacGuire ScratchX to effectively get rid of them, but I don’t think I can use ScratchX here as I think the SR500E qualifies for “unfinished”. Also, those might be too deep for ScratchX. So any thoughts on this?
So here you can see where the normally matte finish on the bass has been rubbed smooth, ostensibly from an arm or shirt or something. It should look as it appears up on the horn by the strap button. Does anyone know of any way I could… unshine it, to make it more matte in finish like the horn?
I wouldn’t mess with it. That’s just love right there.
If you feel you need to make adjustments, Micromesh is what I have used to knock the finish back on the neck of my Strat, touch up some of the more relic’d areas of my P-bass, and add exactly the forearm wear you’re trying to get rid of to my jazz bass
It’s good stuff.
The Micromesh allows you to end up with whatever finish you want. I stopped at lower grits on the necks of my Stat and Jazz bass. On my overly-enthusiastically relic’d P-bass, I went to much higher grits to keep the paint/nitro from flaking.
In your case, start with the lower grits, which are still really mild, to remove the wear you don’t like, then move up until you get the finish level you want. The nice thing about Micromesh is that it plays well with just about any finish.
I’m sure there are folks with more refinishing experience who will chime in shortly. This is just what worked for me.
This! You just need to put masking tape on the pups. Then after “steel wooling” wipe thge sanded part with a slightly damp cloth. You can also wipe off the taped-over pups before you remove the tape.
Thanks! It was a piece of effort for sure. My poor Carvin had a rough life before I got it. Slowly but surely, though, I’m getting it back up to good condition.
Wow! That #0000 steel wool worked WONDERS. Even just a light… not even a scrubbing cleared up most of that shine. I’ll post pics in a bit, but wow, I’m impressed.
The good thing about steel wool is it burnishes the finish vs removing it like sandpaper so it’s great for hand rubbed finishes. The bad thing is it can leave bits of metal in the surface of the wood which will also rust if you use a water based finish on it.
0000 steel wool is equivalent to about 2000 grit sandpaper or a white scotch brite pad. I prefer scotch brite pads for most things like cleaning fret boards or dulling a gloss neck finish but they can leave an uneven surface vs sandpaper or 0000 wool. There was also a synthetic steel wool product like Lee Valley Siawool, not sure if that’s still available.
I really prefer other abrasives over steel wool. It’s probably my least favorite abrasive, simply because it gets everywhere, even if you don’t see it at first.
In addition to 2k+ grit paper there’s also film, or in that range, polishes.
Nail buffing blocks are good for a lot of stuff too like polishing frets. You can get one with 7 grits on it for under $2.
I don’t think I’ve used steel wool in about 20 years, I pretty much only used it for cleaning windows and chrome. Scotch brite pads, wet/dry sandpaper and micromesh pads are better for pretty much everything. Except starting fires
Here’s a fun fact from the PepsiCo (Pepsi/FritoLay) guy…
Fritos make excellent fire starters. Actually all chips to, but Fritos thickness keep the fire going a lot longer. I use them to start up the pizza oven.
Safe, non-toxic, and you can eat what you don’t burn.
Fritos - 1
Steel Wool - 0
White is good for fingerboards that are in really bad shape though I generally find a microfiber cloth gets the job done. I do have a Pacifica guitar that I got for free that really needs a serous cleaning/polishing though!
I bought basses that all have satin necks 
